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Create a foundation of excellence by investing in your most valuable resource, library staff. When staff are well-trained and competent, they are motivated, engaged, and empowered to provide better services and improve their communities. Staff competencies are a powerful way to ensure personal and professional success and to develop teams with deep expertise ready to meet the constant changes in today’s world.

Brenda Hough and Stephanie Gerding share successful models of competencies and discuss how to set expectations. Resources and methods for helping staff reach their full potential are introduced. Ultimately, library staff members need to be flexible and adaptable in order to keep pace with rapid change. Also discussed are ways in which a strong culture of learning can benefit staff at the individual and institutional level as well as ways in which competencies can help get staff buy-in to the big picture. No matter the size of your library or how busy you are, this session provides you with tips you can immediately implement.

This archived webinar was originally presented December 11, 2013.

Running time: 58 minutes
About the Authors

Brenda Hough, independent library consultant, focuses on providing effective learning opportunities for library staff. Her library experiences include work as a facilitator, planner, instructor, trainer, and evaluator. She has worked with libraries nationwide and internationally. Her employers and clients have included Infopeople, TechSoup, WebJunction, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Public Library Association, Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, the Northeast Kansas Library System, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Emporia State University. She is the current President of the American Library Association’s Learning Round Table. When she is not focused on libraries and learning, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son at their home in Lawrence, Kansas.

Stephanie Gerding, independent library consultant, is a librarian, author, and trainer with more than 15 years of professional experience working with libraries, nonprofit, and government organizations. As an independent library consultant, Stephanie plans and conducts learning events on training, evaluation, grants, technology, digital literacy, planning, and advocacy topics. She has managed statewide training programs at the New Mexico and Arizona State Libraries, worked as a library trainer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, taught graduate-level online courses, and is a certified trainer for PLA. Her recent projects include evaluation of Infopeople's Eureka! Leadership program, facilitator/online trainer for PLA's advocacy project, Turning the Page 2.0, The Accidental Technology Trainer, and Winning Grants for Your Library. She consults with TechSoup and PLA on the Edge Initiative technology benchmarking project. Stephanie is an author of three books, including The Accidental Technology Trainer and Winning Grants. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and charming six-year-old daughter.

The Public Library Association (PLA) is a division of the American Library Association. PLA’s core purpose is to strengthen public libraries and their contribution to the communities they serve. Its mission is to enhance the development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library services.